In an office environment, meetings (e.g., in a conference room or other location) are typically utilized in order to disseminate information among group members, to generate new ideas for upcoming projects, to schedule timelines, etc. While meetings are useful in that they allow a presenter to provide information to an entire group of people at once, they are subject to a number of undesirable characteristics. First, simply scheduling a meeting for many people may be a burden. If those people show up late or leave early, the effective time that a presenter has to present their ideas is reduced. Further amplifying the issue, if the presenter has a digital presentation, technical problems such as software and/or hardware compliance issues may occur when the presenter attempts to link their laptop or other device with a digital projector. These problems may take several minutes of time to resolve or may take much longer. This in turn interrupts the flow of the meeting and further reduces the amount of time available for presenting. Compounding the issue, time is not only wasted for the presenter while the technical issue is resolved, but also for every meeting attendee (who sits idly by as the technical issue is resolved).
The technical problems described above are also amplified in an environment where multiple individuals each wish to provide a digital presentation during the same meeting. Each presenter may encounter a different technical issue with the projector, which in turn further reduces the time during which the meeting is productive.
To address these problems, a number of different products have been created. For example, certain devices act as adapters coupled to the projector, and these adapters attempt to make it easier for a user to connect a laptop to the projector (e.g., via a wireless access point instead of via some sort of video cable). However, these adapters are yet another piece of hardware for the meeting room which must be configured before a meeting can be started. Further, these adapters may or may not be compatible with the projector that resides within the meeting room. Thus, instead of resolving the technical compatibility issues associated with projectors, these adapters simply move the problem from the interface between the projector and a laptop to an interface between the projector and adapter.
Thus, meeting attendees and presenters continue to desire projectors and meeting systems that streamline the presentation process and also enhance collaboration between individuals.